The present invention relates to an agricultural harvesting machine, particularly a self-propelled forage harvester, with a chopper drum that includes a chopping blade, and a sharpening device—with a sharpening tool for sharpening the chopping blade—assigned to the chopper drum.
The blades mounted on the chopper drum become worn during the working process of the forage harvester the longer they are in service. The intensity of the wear depends, e.g., on the crop material parameters and the contamination level of the crop material. The required sharpening of the blades is carried out once a specified level of wear has been attained using sharpening devices known in the related art and which can be operated and controlled manually or fully automatically.
Publication DE 199 03 153 C provides that the sharpening intervals be regulated depending on the state of wear of individual chopping blades, that the state of wear be detected by measuring the load on the shear bar against the direction of flow of the crop material and transversely to the direction of flow of the crop material. If the state of wear detected indicates that the blades are dull, the operator is notified accordingly and/or the crop material flow is stopped automatically, or the shear bar is adjusted, or a sharpening procedure is initiated.
Publication DE 103 57 177 A1 discloses a sharpening device for a chopping device of a forage harvester, with which the sharpening intervals for sharpening the chopping blades are determined depending on the operating period of the chopping blades.
The disadvantage of all of the previous designs is that they do not ensure that the working mode of the forage harvester engaged in the harvesting process is interrupted in order to sharpen the blades. Under certain conditions, an interruption of this type can result in a great deal of harvesting time being lost, while also requiring additional effort from the operator of the forage harvester, who is already required to control and activate many other functions during the harvesting process.